I have 3. An M44 first (bought at Gander Mt for $99). Was my wife's fault. She pointed at the cheap Russian rifles and said "What is that?". I checked it out, and had to have one. Next came an M38 ($89) from AimSurplus and an M91/30 ($69) also from AimSurplus.

__________________Liberty and freedom often offends those who understand neither.

I wouldn't say I am hooked on the Mosin nagant. the enfield family of rifles is my main love story within C&R however I do own 2 Izzy 91/30s, one a 1944 the other a 1942.

the first was an online purchase and is the most beautiful 91/30 I've seen out of the box. there are no dents, no scrapes, beautiful dark amber red color. the tool marks are a little gnarly but from what I've seen are par for the course with mosins. it shoots about 4 MOA about 1.5 feet high at 100 yards. has the same crude bolt that you have to open with a 2x4 that makes a MAS36 seem like a beautifully crafted work of art.

the second was bought as an experiment. I bought it sight unseen from a local sporting goods chain store based on the condition of the display model and is pretty nasty. the stock though not overly gauged is had still seen better days and was an unattractive light wood tone. the tool marks looked look like it was forged with an actual hammer and sickle. everything it came with looked heavily used and everything had nearly 1/4 inch of cosmoline on, in, and around it.

accuracy was even poorer than the first mosin so I decided to use this one as my test subject. many people say I should have used the nicer one however I did not want to use one that I was emotionally invested in. I wanted to see if it was possible to make a decent and effective hunting rifle hunting rifle using a mosin nagant but cheaply enough that it was not wiser to just go to walmart and buy a $350 rifle that was designed for such so I gave myself a $300 budget. also I wanted to use only tools that are commonly found in all garages so expensive things like drill presses were stricken.

1. the mosin nagant cost me 125+10 sales tax overall price was $135.
2. a boyds thumbhole sporter stock cost proximately $110, required a great deal of fitting for someone that knows very little about wood working and gunsmithing in general. overall price was now $245.
3. a combination scope rail and bent bolt from ATI cost $45 after shipping and handling. I take full blame for not researching these first however I wanted to keep it cheap and a scout scope rail, scout scope and $80 bent bolt would have exceeded my budget by over 100% so I went the cheap route. the ATI scope rail mounted alright despite having to do everything by hand but the bent bolt which actually requires you to cut the existing bolt off and the drill and tap the bolt body for a single screw to hold it in place. needless to say this is a horrible setup. the bolt style also required further inletting of the boyds stock and the bolt handle rattled loose after a single magazine of ammo went through it. I went with a $10 tube of JB weld to permanently attach the handle to the bolt body has held up through about 50 rounds of 7.62x54R and 200 rounds of 7.62x25(chamber adapter). overall price is now exactly $300 without optics.

I put an existing scope on it t avoid extra investment. the groups have closed to about 3 MOA with a fixed 4x scope however at it's lowest setting still hits over a foot high at 100 yards. final conclusion is that it is possible to sporterize one of these rifles for less than what a modern sporter would cost however there are several problems that you may face along the way and the end result is still a stiff action with less accuracy than just about anything made today.

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ignore my complete lack of capitalization. I still have no problem correcting your grammar.
I never said half the stuff people said I did-Albert Einstein
You can't believe everything you read on the internet-Benjamin Franklin

I have a Big 5 91/30. It is counter bored but it is overall in really good condition. Just picked up a blonde Hungarian M44, have not shot it yet. Eyeing a Russian M44 and possibly a T53. Mosins are really fun.

I picked up a Big 5 91/30 that's a '43 Izzy, that I subsequently converted to a PU sniper. It came out really good, and is a fantastic shooter. I have yet to physically sit down with it and do some good hard zeroing in and printing, but I trust it'll be a sub 3-MOA rifle no problem.

I HAD () a 1944 M-44 from Big 5 as well, but I traded it in after a while. I know that's against one of the golden rules of firearms, but I was just never attached to it. It bugged me how far POI changed with the bayonet folded/unfolded. So it's gone, and I don't really miss it.

My latest is a Non-CAI import () '34 Tula hex receiver in a laminate stock. I got if off Gunbroker for $75 The seller thought the toe splice in the stock had been a recent repair, so it was pretty discounted. The bore is beautiful as well, and shoots as well as the sniper (especially since I did the old Russian sniper trigger mods to it as well). Both of my Mosins' triggers break at about 3-4 pounds. I think it would make a beautiful repro PEM sniper as well.

I would love to get another, that I think would probably end up as an Obrez pistol...

Never thought I would get one then ended up with a 91/30, than a 38, because it was there. I have a feeling I'm not done yet.

__________________
Good intentions will always be pleaded for any assumption of power. The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern will, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.
--Daniel Webster--

In 1995 it dawned on me that I was missing the boat on the whole milsurp thing, so the wife and I went to a gun show. I was looking at a Swedish M96 Mauser, but the wife steered me to something cheaper - a Mosin Nagant M44.

Over the years, I've played the hunter-gatherer at gun shops, pawn shops and gun shows. I figured as long as they're cheap, I'd pick up more to sell or trade off later, along with some 'keepers'.

The cheap ammo and inexpensive rifles got me started. I have four. A 91/30 built in '36 or '37 that some soviet dropped in Finland during the winter war. A 1938 and a M44. And a 1942 90/31 restocked in an ATI with a scout scope on it. Rough metal finish with the lathe marks still on the barrell but the trigger is the best of all the Mosin's that I've shot.

My most interesting "Mosin" is a Chinese version of the M44 that a Vietnam veteran gave me, knowing of my interest in mil surp. The vet was an "advisor" in Vietnam in the early 1960s and during one incident where he was "advising," his team of Vietnamese soldiers presented him with the rifle after a firefight during which a VC soldier was put in a position never to need a rifle again for the rest of eternity.

It's a real treasure to me. I doubt I'll ever try to fire it.

My most recent acquisition is a M44 that has what I can only describe as deep burgundy furniture. She's a real beaut.

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